Haud Yer Tongue TG - Channel 4

14
Speaking Scots
Listening and talking
One of the boys on Westray talks about speaking on the telephone. He says that sometimes he
changes his voice in case he is not understood in Scots. For example, when he’s ordering from a
catalogue he changes his Shetland dialect into English. He called this ‘chantin’.
Do you ever change your voice?
Do you ever hear your parents changing their voices?
In what circumstances does this happen?
Working in pairs
Make up a short phone conversation in Scots. Unless you’re used to writing in Scots, don’t worry
about spelling; this activity is mainly for speaking in Scots.
Choose two people who might speak to each other.
They might be:
● discussing another member of the family;
● talking about a friend;
● arranging a future visit;
● gossiping about someone or something that has happened;
● asking advice about something.
If you are a Scots speaker, try this task without any dictionary help.
You could use the leid leet (word list) or a dictionary if you need to.
You could mix Scots and English together in the dialogue.
Individually or with a partner
Now try using Scots for a serious issue, like the people in the programme.
You might:
A CTIVITY SHEET 4
● select a news item to present;
● discuss an area of your school curriculum;
● conduct a job interview in Scots;
● give a short book or film review in Scots.
Do you think Scots worked well for serious issues? Can you think of any places you’d like to
have more Scots? For example, would you like to hear more Scots on television or read it in
newspapers?
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